1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns an ultrasound device for medical applications, of the type having a transducer formed by multiple transducer elements, wherein the transducer elements are housed in a flexible carrier.
2. Description of the Prior Art
At present, ultrasound devices are widely used in medical technology for diagnostic questions, for example in cardiology in which image exposures or films of the heart are generated with ultrasound. A further application field is lithotripsy, in which the sound waves are used to identify kidney and gall stones.
In principle, ultrasound technology is of interest for the treatment of tumors, based on focusing the ultrasound onto one or more points at which a high energy density that should destroy the tumor would then be generated. However, it has previously not been possible to use ultrasound for this purpose since the body parts on which the transducer would have to be placed (such as, for example, the head of a human or animal patient) are not flat but curved, and the curvatures are specific to the patient and therefore are individual. A controlled sound intromission is therefore not possible with the presently existing ultrasound devices. However, the precision of the treatment is a basic requirement given a use in combating tumors since the patient could otherwise suffer irreparable harm. The high energy density should be confined only to points at which tumor tissue exists, that must be destroyed.
For these reasons, treatment of tumors has previously not occurred using ultrasound but rather exclusively operatively, with x-ray radiation or chemically.
An ultrasound transducer arrangement in which additional transducers are arranged in a circle around a central transducer is known from DE 22 60 257, wherein a flexibly fashioned carrier is provided with a middle part and at least three flexible arms extending like rays from the middle part; a reception transducer attached in the middle part; and transmission transducers respectively attached at the ends of the arms.